Noticing the returning Herta Space Station, Welt swept a slightly helpless gaze over the youth whose smile was difficult to mask, then said in a soft voice,
"I hope your script hasn't suffered any flaws, otherwise, your chances of joining the Express crew will be quite slim."
"We care more about that child's safety than you do. For instance, do you think Himeko would stand by and watch Kiana die?"
"That is not a good example, Shirou."
"Is it possible that this is a topic I intended to bring up?"
Shirou smiled somewhat mysteriously and spoke in a low voice,
"You know? Inside Herta Space Station, there are some 'Cosmic Curios' that only serve as exhibition pieces? And as far as I know, there is a Cosmic Curios which, despite being left with only a few shattered blade fragments, still naturally pieces itself together into the shape of a 'sword', and from time to undulating time, a person's voice echoes from within it."
"She is reborn from the fire, she smiles in the fire."
Chapter 5: Old folks like me can only waifu K-ON.(1/4)
"Uncle Yang, where did you just go? You have no idea how critical the situation was just now, this girl almost died at the hands of that huge monster."
"Thanks to Dan Heng and Sister Himeko pulling their weight, otherwise, Uncle Yang, you wouldn't have been able to see this girl anymore."
"However, speaking of which, I actually showed off quite a bit this time too, wouldn't you say, Stelle?"
Just as she returned to the space station's platform, before even stepping onto the Express, the little pink-haired girl who seemed to have just finished a fierce battle rushed right up the moment she caught sight of Welt. Her little mouth chattered nonstop, somewhat as if she were seeking a bit of comfort, but more seemingly intending to get the old timer to shower her with praise.
This girl's personality had long been figured out inside and out by the Express crew. When dealing with such a straightforward little girl, Teacher Yang—who formerly served at St. Freya Academy—was naturally extremely practiced at it.
"Both you and Dan Heng have grown, March 7th. On the next Trailblaze Journey, perhaps I can suggest that Himeko let the two of you go it alone."
"Yay——!"
After a burst of cheering and jumping, the little pink-haired girl belatedly noticed a certain 'Defense Department staff member' trailing behind Old Yang, and her expression instantly turned tense.
"Uncle Yang, Asta told us that there isn't even a staff member named Shirou in the Space Station Defense Department. This person's identity is problematic."
"Mm, it certainly is problematic. Hopefully, you'll notice earlier next time."
With that, Old Yang looked toward Himeko and Stelle, who were just stepping out from the Express, and walked straight over. Before he could even open his mouth, the little grey hair beside Himeko had already instinctively rushed right up to Shirou, a pair of bright golden eyes staring straight at him.
"Remember me? Stelle."
"Pizza."
"Hm?"
"If there's pizza, I can remember."
"You stinky little sister, feigning amnesia, are you? Did Kafka water down the Meng Po's Soup she gave you?"
Tasselling the little grey hair's head, Shirou breathed a slight sigh of relief inwardly. If the little grey hair had truly forgotten him entirely, he would still have been quite sad; after all, he was the one who had been raising the kid all this time—not quite treating her like a daughter, but at least at the little sister tier. Mentally speaking, she was even less mature than that big younger sister back at his Fuyuki City family home.
"It looks like you are very close with this child."
Walking with an elegant stride, the Express's Navigator who perfectly matched the intellectual and refined image of a mature woman also arrived before Shirou. Her beautiful eyes fell upon him, and after a brief moment of appraisal, she spoke softly,
"Welt says you also want to join the Express crew. Putting aside your previous actions and stance for a moment, simply from the perspective of the Astral Express Navigator, I want to get an answer: do you have a genuine 'reason' to want to join the Express?"
"Naturally, I do."
Shirou smiled. Setting aside the fact that these folks were the protagonist group, the main point was that traveling aboard the Astral Express would be much freer. Moreover, the atmosphere among the Express crew was more relaxed—there were no unscrupulous capitalists like Alaya or Gaia, nor any workaholic bosses like Acheron who crammed your schedule to the brim.
If one compared his home in Type-Moon to MyGO!!!, then the Stellaron Hunters' atmosphere was at least Love Live!, but the Express crew was different. The daily vibe in this place plummeted straight down to K-ON levels.
An old fogey like his sort was much better suited to being a fan of After School Tea Time. Given the choice, who wouldn't want to lie around the clubroom every day eating cake and drinking black tea?
"Actually, there is one thing I lied about: I am not from Mr. Welt's hometown. Although my home planet is also called "Earth" and hasn't suffered the so-called "Honkai" like Mr. Welt's hometown, the planet where I reside is indeed also about to usher in its final end."
"Mr. Welt's hometown also had a Divine Key called "Thousand Realms Shattered" which can be used for "Parallel World Observation", and I happened to observe some possibilities of the "end" through similar means. I roughly deduced it to be a "Planet's Will". The Planet's Will known as "Gaia" seems to be on the verge of death, and following its death, the planets outside Earth will receive the dying messages of the Planet's Will, causing the strongest lifeforms to descend upon each planet."
"It goes by the name of UO, and the scale of its power might possibly touch upon the realm of an "Emanator"."
"Therefore, if we cannot resolve the difficult problem of the dying Planet's Will, my planet will likely suffer the invasion of at least three, or even up to seven monsters infinitely close to the "Emanator" tier."
Steel Earth, Moon of Coral, Star Hunting, Mechanical God Group...
Though Type-Moon's little plot of land wasn't large, it certainly wasn't short on the messed-up troubles encountered across various parallel worlds. Aside from having an arson-loving Old Gai, Fate/Grand Order also featured a delusional mad mage who looked upon human order as something subhuman and sought to usurp it himself. It was hardly a surprise that apocalyptic endings like Steel Earth or Moon of Coral would pop up.
"Though strictly speaking, even if the planet is destroyed, I can still detach myself from my native planet just as I am doing now and wander into the cosmos."
"However... since everything has not yet completely settled, I still have at least some chance to save my homeland, so this can be considered a struggle on my part."
"Traveling along with the Express will allow me to unleash my 'talent' more thoroughly and make me grow stronger faster."
"And on the other hand, I also hope to accompany this little grey hair a bit longer."
Patting the little grey hair's fluffy head, Mr. Emiya continued with a light smile,
"I am an older brother figure, and this little grey hair can actually be considered my second foster sister. She was sent up to the Express after Kafka wiped quite a bit of her memory. While I can understand the reasons they had for doing so, but... in a new environment where she knows no one, having the company of someone familiar will make her feel a little more at ease."
When this final sentence left Shirou's lips, a confirming smile bloomed on the Navigator's face.
"Welcome to the Express, Shirou."
"It's an absolute honor."
Your commission "Off-Screen Job" is complete.
You have obtained 540 points + random UP banner currently limited-release.
Hunter x Hunter crossover banner limited-time opening; SSR "Crimson Eye (Kurapika)", SR "Master of Stealth (Chrollo)", SR "Nen: Hundred-Type Guanyin (Netero)" limited-pull rewards will be directly obtained after 50, 100, and 300 draws.
Your commission "Join the Star Rail" is complete.
You have obtained 420 points + optional Express crew member banner.
Welt limited banner limited-time opening; SSR "Core of Reason (ascended version)", SR "Star of Eden", SR "Father Mech" limited-pull rewards will be directly obtained after 100, 300, and 5000 draws.
Chapter 6: If Rich, Rheinmetall; If Poor, Laiyang Steel Pipe!(2/4)
Shirou Emiya was a transmigrator.
Naturally, what he meant to say here wasn't anything about running away from that little plot of land in Type-Moon out into this cosmic starry sky.
Besides, those two worlds were already arranged for a crossover anyway, and for all he knew, they might well be blended into the exact same worldview.
Yet for Shirou Emiya as he was now, whether it was Type-Moon or Star Rail, neither was actually his original world. He couldn't be bothered to ponder too deeply on propositions like high-dimensional worlds or the real world; being able to break free from his previous endless and passionless mechanized life meant that, to him, nothing else mattered.
As a transmigrator, Mr. Emiya had also been very considerately gifted a very considerate "present", described in more unadorned vocabulary as a "Golden Finger".
A framework of extreme simplicity.
At present, it only had two functions.
First, task commissions.
Second, gacha banners.
Although the framework was exceedingly simple and crude, its functionality could not be underestimated. The banners available for pulling ranged from Old Mi's own game worldviews to other games, anime, and even tokusatsu works that would all pop up inside the gacha pools.
Although Mr. Emiya hadn't quite figured out how many levels the task commission limit had, starting from the banners unlocked by three-star commissions, there was a chance to pull "banners" from non-current worldviews.
Up to character traits and skills, down to local specialties from those worlds.
From the M1917 Smith & Wesson to the Thomson Overdrive, and even Love Train or Made in Heaven, crossover banners would always inexplicably spit out some particularly heaven-defying nonsense.
Yet, what made him rather sad was that the commission reward points weren't much. Usually, a single ten-pull required upward of ten one-star commissions, and two- or three-star commissions were sometimes so rare they wouldn't crop up for a month or two.
Before coming into this cosmic starry sky, Mr. Emiya had practically been in a commission-refresh disaster zone back at his Type-Moon hometown. He couldn't trigger any tasks for the Tohno family in Misaki City, nor for the Sajo family in Tokyo, and even the Three Families that should have naturally existed in Fuyuki City had been replaced by the Einzberns. Wild mages without connections in the Clock Tower also found it hard to get by there.
As a result, aside from sheer coincidence and tangentially getting involved with the problematic Aozaki sisters, he hadn't managed to snag commissions from Melty Blood, Kara no Kyoukai, or Fate/Prototype settings. He had even nearly caught the attention of the True Ancestor; with his weak arms and legs at the time, if he had genuinely fought a True Ancestor, aside from bullying extras like Roa, he really couldn't have afforded to provoke heavyweights like Alcueid, Ciel, or the like.
It was precisely by relying on that single commission with the Aozaki sisters that Mr. Emiya experienced a rare surge of luck, pulling the ability "Aurora Curtain". Although the Aurora Curtain was standard equipment within the Great Shocker Organization, the version he pulled was Tsukasa Kadoya's exclusive variant. Not only was it bound immutably to him so it couldn't be stolen, but it also came with a complimentary transmigration one-click registration feature, allowing him to mix himself an initial identity upon landing in any new setting.
That was precisely the reason he was able to join the Stellaron Hunters, to the extent that Acheron had racked her brains without ever figuring out how she managed to drag this freeloader into the organization.
"The Hunter banner and Welt's banner, Silver Wolf and Sam's banners just wrapped up too..."
Mr. Emiya first checked out the "Nen: Hundred-Type Guanyin", "Master of Stealth", and "Crimson Eye" inside the Hunter banner. Although they were all decent abilities, the versatility of these Nen abilities was basically locked right there.
Even if the Master of Stealth were given to him, it wouldn't carry much meaning. As for President Netero's Nen ability, it did hold some special-effects value, but to him—who had already acquired Silver Wolf's "Aether Editing" ability—it carried even less worth. Modifying a Susanoo-clad giant Buddha special effect for himself on the spot wouldn't even be particularly difficult.
The only ability that could be considered decent was the "Crimson Eye", exclusive to the Kurapika version. In other words, it allowed one to activate Specialist-type Nen, flowering across all categories just like Kurapika, though its value to Mr. Emiya was also quite limited.
Or rather, it was actually some of the R cards in the banner that gave him some ideas.
"Aura Capacity Enhancement", "Four Major Principles", "Nen Activation", "Enhancement Affinity Boost", "Transmutation Affinity Boost"...
"The most unadorned things possess the highest value."
As the saying goes: If rich, Rheinmetall; if poor, Laiyang Steel Pipe.
It wasn't that Netero's Nen ability wasn't flashy enough, but rather that awakening and developing your own Nen was far more cost-effective.
An ability like the "Aether Editing" excelled at by Silver Wolf was also a unique talent native to people within that planet, and unique across the entire universe.
Constitution—the most foundational tier of rewards—was actually the most cost-effective product across many banners.
People possessing cursed energy and developing it within the Jujutsu Kaisen worldview were very few, and building upon cursed energy manipulation to also awaken a technique was nearly a one-in-ten-thousand chance.
Setting aside these rare cases, just looking at mainstream shonen manga, characters in One Piece were low-spec Saitamas across the board without limiters, training mindlessly without limits, and possessing regenerative abilities after replenishing nutrients that were practically akin to an undying body—especially wretches like Coby who claimed to put in three-hundred-fold effort and could directly catch up to protagonist-group monsters who had undergone hundreds of episodes of power-ups.
Then looking at those ninjas in Naruto, putting aside chakra and considering only the baseline of roughly 130 trillion cellular total per person, that already provided the fundamental aptitude to extract chakra. Thus, for Sage Bodies like the Uzumaki or Senju clans, the upper limit of stacking volume was even harder to estimate. Moving further up, there were the Otsutsukis and the Otsutsuki main family; those entities could hardly be called humans anymore—they were basically cosmic monsters draped in human skin.
"I can stop once I pull the "Aura Capacity Enhancement" and "Nen Activation" skills; other affinities can be directly modified using Silver Wolf's "Aether Editing"."
Aether Editing was an exceptionally useful ability. Although it couldn't achieve creation out of void space, re-modifying pre-existing things was simply a divine skill.
Using Aether Editing, Mr. Emiya could even modify his origin from "Origin of the Sword" to "Origin of the Complete Melee Weapon Encyclopedia", though if he did that, the purity of Unlimited Blade Works would drop significantly.
"I still have 6000 left; I'll all-in on Welt's banner. If I can pull the "Core of Reason" and combine it with Projection Magecraft and Origin's mana-cost reduction, buddy can wholesale hundreds of Excaliburs."
"However, before pulling, let's borrow a bit of metaphysical buffing."
Mr. Emiya's gaze silently shifted toward the Herta Space Station outside the Express—more accurately, toward the Curiosity Collection Room inside the station. The other items didn't much matter, but Himeko's broken Sword of Fallen Gods was in there, with its other half in Kiana's hands.
Kiana had half of the Sword of Fallen Gods; if buddy also had half, then buddy was also equivalent to Kiana!
And as everyone knew, Crumbs possessed the heaven-defying dog-luck of pulling a golden item on a single solo draw, a grand prize on a single solo draw.
That being the case...
This monstrous dog-luck, buddy might as well try to borrow a bit of it!
Chapter 7: Mature ship's guardians are adept at feeding themselves angst.(3/4)
"Curiosity Collection Room? That belongs to Ms. Herta's private collection room; entering and exiting is generally prohibited without Ms. Herta's permission."
On the main pier of the space station, Asta gazed at the members of the Express crew, pondered slightly for a moment, and then spoke once more.
"However, everyone from the Express can be considered benefactors of the space station. Since it's a request put forward by you, I can grant you viewing permissions here."
"However, please be aware that the ownership of those Cosmic Curios without exception belongs to Ms. Herta. Even supervisor-level staff need foundational staff to stamp documents if they wish to study curios... Therefore, please refrain from engaging in any behavior unrelated to browsing."
To be honest, as the station master, Asta was deeply grateful to these Express crew members for stepping up to help at the space station's moment of crisis. But when it came to matters concerning Herta—that Genius Society member—she truly couldn't make unilateral decisions. Once Ms. Herta felt any dissatisfaction toward her, all the investments poured into this space station in the early stages could instantly vanish into thin air.
She had been walking on thin ice these past few years, and she didn't know when she would truly become someone recognized by Ms. Herta.
"To be honest, we actually have a clear target in heading toward the Exhibition Room."
Welt spoke in a deep voice to Asta,
"There should be a Cosmic Curios inside the collection room that might be related to an old friend from my hometown. Back then, she risked everything using equipment that bore a load she couldn't handle, ultimately plunging into Imaginary Space. Later, some of us also tried to search for her traces, but in the end... only a broken sword was finally recovered. The other half of that broken sword seems to be inside the space station."
"A broken sword? Is it Number 293?"
After pondering slightly for a moment, Asta thought of the curio Welt had mentioned. The curios in Herta Space Station weren't entirely fixed; a portion of them came from other members of the Genius Society and even the IPC, considered to be deposited or borrowed on loan. The curios that remained long-term inside the space station actually didn't exceed one hundred pieces, and among those one hundred, there was only one that matched the shape of a "broken sword".
"Since your target is that one, I'll take you all directly to have a look first. If you confirm that that curio really is the relic of someone from your hometown, by that time... if you wish to retrieve it, you'll have to negotiate directly with Ms. Herta."
"Thank you."
Welt nodded. Although his relationship with Himeko could not be called intimate, they had once been colleagues. Furthermore, during the Herrscher of the Void incident, had Himeko not stepped forward to pull Kiana back, all subsequent events might not have unfolded as the later script dictated.
Without Kiana—this Herrscher of the End standing on the side of humanity—they would have had no way to contend against Kevin the Demonic Fiend. Once Kevin returned from the Sea of Quantum, the Stigmata Project would officially launch, and human civilization would completely turn to ashes amidst the unfolding of the Stigmata Project.
Therefore, whether it was reclaiming Himeko's relic, or... according to someone's words, the infinitesimal possibility of awakening her once more, based on these two reasons, if those half-shredded Sword of Fallen Gods truly existed within Herta Space Station, he would expend all his effort to retrieve it.
Before you continue